Help Page Patrollers are a group of Wikipedians who patrol the help desk and help users who have placed the {{helpme}} template on their talk pages. The patrol is an optional service. Patrollers can come and go, and there is no official sign up process.

Regular patrollers may add {{User HPP}} or {{user help desk}} to their user page:

This user is a help page patroller

This user volunteers at the
Wikipedia Help Desk.

What helpers can do

Make sure all messages are formatted correctly,
Answer questions,
Check the Help Me Category and answer questions from users,
Check archives

Patrollers

Add yourself with

#~~~ (Joined ~~~~~)

and if you are not using the userbox, add yourself to the Help Desk Patrol Category.

List

Levonscott User talk:Levonscott User:Levonscott (Joined 07:38, 21 August 2011 (UTC))[reply]
StewieGriffin! • Talk 07:04, 4 June 2008 (UTC) I'm Back Founder of the HPP[reply]
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Hersfold ^(t/a/c) (Joined 21:41, 19 April 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Soxred93 | talk bot (Joined 19:57, 19 April 2008 (UTC))[reply]
...... Dendodge.Talk^Help (Joined 09:34, 20 April 2008 (UTC))[reply]
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-- Natalya 22:45, 28 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Active earlier this year, hope to regain that. Rudget (Help?) 13:23, 1 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
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:-) Stwalkerster [ talk ] (Joined 16:12, 15 June 2008 (UTC), but have been doing this for ages)[reply]
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July 2

Revision Numbers

Some edit notes read:

Undid revision 123456789 by "user name" (where '123456789' is an example.)

Usually the revision number refers to the previous edit, but not always.

Please advise how to find an edit from the revision number. Thanks. Wanderer57 (talk) 00:16, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=prev&oldid=123456789 PrimeHunter (talk) 00:46, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

building a fence

we are buildin a fence and i wanted to know if when the people come to read our meater each month do they fisicaly come and look at the meater or just drive by and point that sencer reader at it from the road —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.231.51.200 (talk) 00:24, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 00:26, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Assuming the question is serious, one simple and accurate way to get the answer would be to call the telephone number that appears on the utility bill each month, and ask the people who send the bill how they get the information for it. Granted, most utility companies now probably have those wonderful IVR systems that present the caller with a lengthy menu of options, none of which are what you want, but if you have enough endurance, you can sometimes actually talk to a human by the end of it. --Teratornis (talk) 06:15, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yes— only your power provider can really answer the question. I'm on an electric coop and used to submit my meter reading via the internet every month. My meter was upgraded a few years ago and it now transmits the reading over the power line. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 09:41, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

An electric coop? For battery hens? DuncanHill (talk) 11:32, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'll go out on a limb and guess Gadget850 (Ed) refers to a Utility cooperative. Although I could see the marketing advantages for a self-cooking chicken. --Teratornis (talk) 19:14, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Eggsactly. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 21:07, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

unknown painting #2

baby angel putting a rose crown on a beautiful woman dressed in a white and blue dress {looks roman}. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.229.105.205 (talk) 01:37, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You could try Wikipedia:Reference desk/Humanities. This help desk is just for answering questions about how Wikipedia works. --Beloved Freak 01:41, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Special page for protecting

Hello. I would like to know if there was a special page, such as Special:Blockip and Special:Userrights, that lets administrators protect a page. Cheers, RyRy (talk) 02:28, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

No such page is listed at Special:SpecialPages. seresin ( ¡? ) 02:33, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Protection is done by clicking the "protect" tab at the top of an article; there is no special page. —Kal ^(talk) 04:51, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I know you have to click the "protect" tab, I was just wondering if there was a special page for it. Thanks anyways. -- RyRy (talk) 04:58, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Deletion

how do i find out why my entry is up for deletion? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hrbutler06 (talk • contribs) 02:41, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Take a look at the deletion page, which will be linked to by the deletion tag on the page to be deleted. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 02:59, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

User status

One of my users (friend of mine) says that the status function to tell other users whether your online or not only works for MonoBook. Is that true?

--Xizes^(talk) 03:28, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That depends. Which one? Qui? Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 03:29, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's the one I'm using, and I copied the code from another user, although I forget which of the 1 million users it is. Right here ---> User:Xizes/StatusDiv

Stale

– I got the problem solved. My friend was talking about the position of the template

By the way, the page should work in all skins, it doesn't use wiki-code, it's HTML. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 03:51, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Requested Page

I was asked to create the page on the artist Darlene Libbey, but seeing that it needs to be wikified a lot, I didn't know if perhaps this article belongs on wikipedia since she is not famous or well known.Renaix (talk) 05:58, 2 July 2008 (UTC)Renaix[reply]

You can take a look at Wikipedia:Notability (people) to see if she follows the guidelines. -- Natalya 11:04, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Brit vs. American spelling?

An anonymous IP-address user just went thru "James Bond (film series)" article and changed all the American spelling to British spelling? (He or she also changed "England" to "the UK"). Is there a Wikipedia standard on this?

WickerGuy (talk) 06:09, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

See WP:SPELLING. If I remember right, that goes over this point. Basically, American English is used for predominantly American subjects and Brit English for Brit English subjects. If the article doesn't lean one way or the other, whatever convention was established first is kept throughout. Dismas|^(talk) 06:20, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

And see the links under WP:EIW#Spell, for example Wikipedia:Manual of Style (national varieties of English). (We could have settled this issue in 1814, but apparently the framers of the Treaty of Ghent did not anticipate Wikipedia, while they were hashing out other issues such as the captured American slaves that the British promised to return, but never did.) --Teratornis (talk) 06:22, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(ec) Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style#National_varieties_of_English, as mentioned. Basically, the form of English should be used that would naturally be associated with the subject. That article is a fishy area for this, however; Ian Flemming was himself British, as is the titular character, but the films are produced by American companies. Considering that, staying the same might be the winning argument. The UK vs. England one is more simple, as they have quite distinct definitions. Be as specific as is relevant...Someguy1221 (talk) 06:28, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The James Bond films should be in American spelling in my opinion, as it was pointed out above, they are produced by American companies. The books written by Flemming, however, should probably be in British English. Gary King (talk) 16:55, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The films should ofc be british english as well, it would just be unnecessary to have all James Bond articles in BE and then suddenly some James Bond articles in AE — chan dler — 17:21, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I can't see the argument for AE, really. James Bond's clearly superficially a British thing. When Sony produce a film we don't write about it in Japanese English. AndyJones (talk) 17:27, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Is there such thing as Japanese English? Gary King (talk) 17:28, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

A similar case I can think of is the Harry Potter films which are written in British, I don't know about movies like LOTR and Narnia. — chan dler — 17:53, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Anyways, these issues should be brought up on their respective talk pages. Gary King (talk) 17:55, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know whether this counts as Japanese English, but see: Engrish. (All your Help desk are belong to us.) --Teratornis (talk) 02:24, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Talk page

i want to archiv my user page. It is very much on it right now. AlwaysOnion (talk) 11:24, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The good old fashioned way is to take the old material off the current talkpage, create a user subpage, slap the old material on there, tag it with {{Archive}}, and link to it from your current talkpage. Several bots can do it for you now - see User:MiszaBot III (instructions) and {{werdnabot}}. Xenon 54 11:35, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If you want to preserve the edit history on the new page instead of just copy-pasting, consider using a page move to do the job. --Oni Ookami Alfador^Talk|@ 14:42, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Problems connecting to Wikipedia via Internet Explorer

Hope someone can help. I cannot access Wikipedia via Internet Explorer - when I add "en.wikipedia.org" on the address line on internet Explorer - it comes up saying that website cannot be found. BUT when I log onto my AOL account and put "en.wikipedia.org" on the address line there it instantly connects me to your site. Furthermore, if I do a search for a specific subject or author on Google and try to click the link to Wikipedia this also fails. This failure occurred 10 days ago previously I was able to get onto your site via Internet Explorer or through a link from a Google search. Can anyone tell me what the problem is and how to solve it? Many thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.23.5.133 (talk) 12:10, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I have a feeling that the problem is more with the browser and less with the Internet connection, since it works well with AOL but not with IE. I use Firefox and IE occasionally, but I have never encountered your problem here. My guess is that IE has not detected your Internet connection, but it could be anything. --Sky Harbor ^(talk) 14:16, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think I could help with this, but more information is really needed. Are you connecting to the internet with AOL or are you only using it in conjuction with an ISP? Also, have you tried including http:// in front of en.wikipedia.org, as sometimes IE, especially versions prior to 7, can be finicky if that is ommited from a url (no reason I can understand for it but it does happen). Aside from wikipedia, are there any other sites you can't get into? Particularly any other wikimedia sites? Try going to the main wikimedia page [1] and try using the link there to get into wikipedia through explorer.--Oni Ookami Alfador^Talk|@ 14:40, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe your ISP has a DNS problem. AOL may be using their own DNS, which works. You might find some help with the links resulting from this Google search:

how to diagnose network connection problems

One way to tell when you have a DNS problem is to browse to a site by its numerical IP address rather than by its domain name in the URL. We can see the English Wikipedia's IP address with the ping program:

$ ping en.wikipedia.org
PING rr.pmtpa.wikimedia.org (208.80.152.2) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from rr.pmtpa.wikimedia.org (208.80.152.2): icmp_seq=1 ttl=50 time=61.5 ms
...

What do you get if you click this URL?

http://208.80.152.2

That doesn't actually get you to the English Wikipedia, but to a kind of redirection page that lists a bunch of wiki sites. The point is, if you can see that page, that probably means your ISP has a DNS problem. You would then report this problem to your ISP and hopefully they could fix it. --Teratornis (talk) 17:51, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

word-wrap

Frequently I would like to zoom in to an article. To do this, I hold down the Ctrl key and use the middle, scrolling button on my mouse. Another way to think of what I am trying to do is increasing the font size of the article. When I do that in Wikipedia, however, the article text does not word-wrap. The result is that part of the screen, and part of the text, is off-screen. Compare what happens when doing the same thing at a newspaper's web site like the New York Times. If you zoom in there, the text gets bigger but then also word-wraps so the reader will not have to go bouncing back and forth between one end of the hidden text to the other just to take advantage of increased font size.

-- John Ransom —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.49.103.252 (talk) 17:39, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see this problem in Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.14 on Ubuntu 7.10, but my mouse wheel does not work the same way. I have to select View | Text Size | Increase (or Ctrl +) to increase the font size. When I increase the font size, the text rewraps correctly, at least for the Wikipedia pages where I tried it. Do you get the same problem when you resize the text from your Web browser's menu? Perhaps the problem is specific to your browser. See: WP:EIW#Browser, especially Wikipedia:Browser notes. Maybe you will find some advice about your browser. --Teratornis (talk) 18:44, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Portal problem....

RESOLVED --ZooFari (talk) 18:27, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Err... that's good to hear. - tholly ^--Turnip-- 20:56, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

medicine

can taking and outdate pain med hurt you? \ —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jerrysrosebud (talk • contribs) 18:21, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikipedia:Medical disclaimer. We cannot answer your question even if we knew the answer, and you should not trust your health and possibly your life to random advice you might get from distant strangers on the Interwebs. But if you like to gamble with your life, you could search for what random unqualified strangers have to say on this game of pharmaceutical Russian roulette:

should I take expired medications?

I do know that any medication can hurt you if you take too much, or if you have an allergic reaction to it, or if it interacts badly with other medications you take. You should ask your physician for instructions on how to take medications, and if you do, I am about 99.99% certain that he or she will tell you to throw away any drugs that have passed their expiration dates. --Teratornis (talk) 18:58, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

sub headings...

This site is very NOT user friendly. I would like to make sub heads that appear in the content box. How do I do that?

Also, I would like to add a box on the right hand side that has our Fire Departments logo in there and basic info. How do I do that?

Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kinnidi (talk • contribs) 20:11, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

To add an image on the right hand side of a page, add:

[[Image:IMAGE NAME.jpg|thumb|right|OPTIONAL CAPTION]]

Just add a caption if you want, and put in the fire department's logo when you have found that image. Please explain the other part of your question - I don't quite understand. - tholly ^--Turnip-- 20:55, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Actually it is. Would you prefer to write in full HTML? If the Fire department is related to you, it is a COI. StewieGriffin! • Talk Sign Listen 20:56, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The first question is about headings at different levels in the table of contents. It's described at Help:Section but the current version of Milwaukee Fire Department shows that Kinnidi has already worked it out since asking. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:15, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I have made a few additional fixes to the headings and links. – ukexpat (talk) 21:54, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Second question: One sample infobox which may be of use to your article may be this one set up for UK Fire and Rescue. Infobox. There are many infoboxes created for a variety of purposes and articles. Category:Infobox templates. Upon scrolling this list, this infobox for fire departments may be better for your purposes. Just copy and paste the code in the section title Usage into your article when you are in edit this page mode. Fill in the various headings after the equal signs. SriMesh | talk 05:17, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

editing help

I am in the process of editing the article on the Clewiston Inn. I have successfully written the article but I need help uploading pictures and with references. I already read the FAQ but I still need help.

Zahrakhan (talk) 20:41, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You need to have an account that is 4 days old and has made 10 edits to upload images. Your account was created today, so you will have to wait. - tholly ^--Turnip-- 20:52, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I see you had listed reference at the bottom of the article inside of <ref></ref> tags and properly included a references section with a template to make them appear ({{Reflist}}. All that was very good. I see you removed them now, probably because you hadn't figured out how to make them useful. Don't give up. You were halfway there. First, the text of the references needs to be far more transparent. For example, you listed a reference as "Hendry County Listings". This doesn't tell anyone who want's to verify what the references says, nearly enough to check it themselves. Example of information you should provide, where appropriate, would be the name of the publisher, the URL (if the source is online), the ISBN number for books, the page number from the source, and so on. We have a number of templates which help people format references, and the categories of information they list are illuminating as to what to include. Please see Wikipedia:Citation templates. The second problem with the way you were listing the references was that you didn't place them in the text. The purpose of inline citations is to have the footnote appear right next to the text it is referencing. Please see {{Refref}} for a visual snapshot of how inline citations are added and function. See also Wikipedia:Footnotes for detailed discussion. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:29, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Urine therapy??? - RSVP ASAP

Hi. I'm not sure if this is the place to put this, but I'd like to bring the following edits to your attention: see Special:Contributions/67.170.240.227. The anon has been inserting references to "urine therapy" to various ailment-related articles. This sounds unlikely, and can perhaps lead the reader to perform disgusting actions. I'd usually either revert this, or fix and wikify it and tag it with {{fact}}, but I'm not an expert in this subject by any means. Please take a look at it, especially if you have sufficient knowledge in the area. If it is true, it needs to be fixed. It is unsourced and might not be true, so please examine this ASAP. Thanks. ~A H 1^(TCU) 21:23, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's vandalism. An administrator needs to do a rollback as there are quite a few. Will an admin please look at this?Mike P ^(WHAT?) 22:41, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hi. It's been resolved. Please see User talk:Friday#Urine therapy. The anon has already been reverted and blocked. Thanks. ~A H 1^(TCU) 22:52, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

"Spam blacklist"

I got a spam blacklist message. The notice says that the hyperlink overflow=auto; height triggered this. 1) That's obviously not a hyperlink. 2) Why would this be blacklisted? flaming lawyer^c 22:05, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's probably not: [2] - which page did you try and edit? x42bn6 Talk Mess 22:36, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Have you tried looking at the Meta Spam blacklist? PeterSymonds (talk) 22:38, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This could be because the interface alert that the software gives you is malformed. It definetly would be a good idea to investigate why you had this problem, and any information that you can provide about the circumstances of your edit, will be helpful. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 18:31, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

changing out of the disambiguation classification

My name in Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band is "Ella Guru". When that name is typed into Wikipedia search it comes up with a woman who uses that name. Only if I look for a drop down menu and select disambiguation can I find it. I remember that when a name is used more than once the MAIN page after search gives the different links to each meaning of the searched name, yet now it only goes directly to her page. How can this be changed that if someone Googles "Ella Guru" or goes to Wikipedia and searaches that name that the FIRST page would show the different references to that name? —Preceding unsigned comment added by DoodeOfMonk (talk • contribs) 22:41, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If you look right at the top of that page, it says "For other uses, see Ella Guru (disambiguation)". Clicking that link will take you to a page which mentions several uses of that name, including your own. Olaf Davis | Talk 23:00, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Adding a picture

How do you add a picture to a wikipage? actually my user page, but how? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Number13lucky (talk • contribs) 23:27, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:IMAGE#Using_images shows you how to add images, and some good general information about them. -- Natalya 00:01, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

A little more info - First you have to upload it, this may help you. Make sure you put all the right copyright info, or else it may be deleted. Afterwards, go here. IceUnshattered (talk) 00:04, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

July 3

Images scrolling incorrectly

At Wikipedia:WikiProject The Legend of Zelda series/right panel, under the "High quality Zelda articles" header there is a scrollable list of featured content. When I scroll down on the list on my Internet Explorer 7.0 browser, the featured article stars do not scroll down the list at all, but rather they stay in the same position. I noticed at Template:FA-star (which is used on that page), there is some coding not found in Template:GA-icon (which scrolls perfectly fine on that page). Since I am not an administrator, can someone figure out how to solve this? Thanks, Xnux the Echidna 02:47, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Not happening to me, so I'm going to repeat what you've probably heard many times before: "Get Firefox!" (IE7 is known not to work too well around here). Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 02:56, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I use Firefox as well, but I can confirm that this occurs on IE 6.0 too (picture). -- RattleMan 02:58, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I have a feeling that the position:relative CSS style is CSS 3 or something like that and is being interpreted as position:absolute by Internet Explorer. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 03:06, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Firefox? Eeewww... Xnux the Echidna 03:11, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Works fine in Safari. Dismas|^(talk) 03:16, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think the <span> in {{FA-star}} should just be removed, like {{GA-icon}}. Gary King (talk) 04:57, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

There is a known bug with Internet Explorer when you use elements with position:relative within a block containter with overflow. That seems to be the case here. BTW, Calvin 1998 "IE7 is known not to work too well around here" What a bullocks, everything (with the exception of userscripts) in wikipedia is supposed to be compatible with all major browsers. If it is not, such issues should be reported and they will be fixed. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 18:14, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I have applied the suggested fix from the page linked in my earlier posting, I'd love to hear if it indeed fixes the issue. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 18:16, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The offending code was also already removed from

because it was no longer necessary. Issue solved. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 18:35, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

the word, there

I'm using wiki for the first time and I'm trying to find the simple Edison's version of the word; there. Is it a noun, verb, pronoun or what, that's all! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.82.30.234 (talk) 08:26, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If you are looking for a definition of the word "there", try Wiktionary: See there. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 10:06, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

User committed identity

I'm trying to make a user committed identity, but when I enter the 'has function' parameter, it displays what I type. Isn't it supposed to encode it or something? Or am I just missing out a step? Thanks, TheMoridian 09:02, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The template doesn't do the hash encoding for you. You must first obtain your secure hash from either a secure hashing program or a website that can provide it for you. The recommended site for secure hashes is http://www.hashemall.com/ You can find step-by-step instructions here -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 12:51, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Industry bias!

i've recently been editing the Diablo 3 article, and come across a brick wall. Wikipedia needs to convey information; although at the same time, the information must be from a valid source. It can be taken as read that sources producing the subject matter (i.e. Blizzard, on Diablo 3) is a valid source. However, how do you convey information that is generated by the general public i.e. lots of talk in forums, news and over 2000 signing a petition in 3 days (i accept that petitions can't be used, due to how they can be skewed... but even if its only a few people doing it multiple times... thats still a lot of people that are hopping mad) when nobody lets you post it? The article cannot be neutral if it can only quote industry (as they obviously are pleased with how they are doing it), and only give generalizations about what the fans are so disgruntled about? how can an article specify and give an official quote from industry refuting the problem, while at the same time not even acknowledging the specific problem even exists? There should be rules set in place stating that (in terms of a "produces"-"end user" scenario) if industry is quoted, so too must a refutable source from the end users (that is quoted by more than one other source). Ether that, or both should be general, and have sources referencing them so people can look into each side of the story. However, i don't think that is what wikipedia is for. We are about providing the public with free, neutral information. We have to educate people, while at the same time telling both sides of the coin. Don't let Wikipedia becoming Stalinist, where only industry can be quoted, because industry is the only 'official' reference! --Tyraz (talk) 09:57, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Please direct replies to Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing#Industry bias. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 10:59, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Suspected Socks

Lets say a user creates a raft of abusive socks over a day or two. Which account is labelled the "puppetmaster"? Such that the other counts are suspected sockpuppets of x. The first account created, the first to edit, the most active etc.?Fribbler (talk) 17:49, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Probably the first. Gary King (talk) 16:28, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, probably the first. Also, sign your posts by typing four tildes (~~~~) =) IceUnshattered (talk) 17:44, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Whoops...not like me to forget to sign!...Fribbler (talk) 17:49, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

References

HI Can i use a tv show as a reference? NBC nighty news. I added that the fires are only 5% contained but i dont know how to reference it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Thunderpenguin (talk • contribs) 14:08, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Use {{cite episode}}. Gary King (talk) 16:27, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Advertising Business

I need to put information on Wikipedia about the business I am working for. How do I go about doing this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sbenjamin (talk • contribs) 14:32, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's really hard to write an article for the company for which you work without crossing into advertising. Articles need to be written from a neutral point of view and cannot promote a specific entity or organization. If you would still like to write an article, review this guide. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 14:37, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

See WP:BFAQ. Why do you "need" to write about your employer on Wikipedia? Did you employer tell you to do this? If so, then your supervisor should also read WP:BFAQ. Wikipedia is unlike anything which most people have experienced before; therefore, many people form misconceptions about Wikipedia when they first glance at it. Wikipedia has very complex policies and guidelines. Learning enough about Wikipedia to create a new article from scratch requires substantial study and practice, especially when you have a conflict of interest with the article's subject. --Teratornis (talk) 18:52, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Please also read WP:CORP, WP:COI and WP:SPAM. – ukexpat (talk) 15:33, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Anon IP contributions

Hi, is there any way of seeing what contributions a range of anon IP editors have made. For example, if an editor is assigned an IP address in the range 10.11.12.0 - 10.11.12.100, is there an easy way to see contributions for this range? --Bardcom (talk) 15:37, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

There is a way with the gadget they developed recently. Enable 'Gadget-contribsrange.js' in your preferences ("Allow /16 and /24 – /32...") and then, in your case (I presume), do a search for 141.6.8.* in Special:Contributions. Javascript needs to be enabled for this. -- Menti sock 16:13, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

blocked petition

This url http://www.petitio*nonline.com/d3art/petition.html (remove star) is blocked.. However it is currently needed as a reference in the Diablo 3 article.. and not as an external link.

Is it possible to unblock it ? and if so how? Thanks.87.102.86.73 (talk) 16:21, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The block is found at MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist. Perhaps you could use a news source that mentions the petition rather than link to the petition itself? Gary King (talk) 16:27, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You can request removal from the blacklist at MediaWiki talk:Spam-blacklist. I doubt that your request will be honored, as this is a petition site. I do not see how an online petition can ever be a reliable source. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 16:39, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That's what were doing currently.. Still is the block justified? most of the links on the list seem to be 'freemoney.com' etc, it would be good if it could be unblocked as no single source contains the same info. as the petition.87.102.86.73 (talk) 16:44, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The petition in question complains about style issues with D3. Another petition linked from the home page at */DIII/petition.html lauds the D3 color scheme. There is another petition at */aaaawhat/petition.html to "aaaaaa...". This site is not a reliable source. If you want to continue, this, take it to the blacklist. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 17:05, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

ok you're probably right...87.102.86.73 (talk) 18:54, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

How do I take a case to Arbitration

I am in dispute with User:Bardcom about Radio 4 UK Theme in particular and about his editing in general. Please see discussions on his Talk page. What is the best way for me to proceed? CarterBar (talk) 20:29, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Arbitration is usually the last step in dispute resolution. You should try WP:RFC or WP:3O first. Wisdom89 _{(_T / ^C)} 20:37, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(ec)Arbitration is the very top of the tree in terms of dispute resolution. Don't think about going there, yet. I see the two of you have started conversations and they don't yet seem too heated, so far as I can tell. Keep talking and you may find you can establish a working relationship. A good place to get other people involved in helping to resolve your dispute is to list the issue at WP:RFC. AndyJones (talk) 20:39, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia runs on something like the Rule of law (see: Wikipedia:There is no common sense). Wikipedia has a complex set of policies and guidelines that cover almost every situation that has come up in the history of editing on Wikipedia. When a new situation comes up, and no existing policy or guideline adequately covers it, then Wikipedia's editors arrive at a new consensus and further extend the rules. Generally, on Wikipedia, when people disagree about something, the person who best understands how the policies and guidelines apply to the disagreement wins. Thus the way to avoid the avoidable disputes, and win the unavoidable ones, is to learn as much as you can about Wikipedia's accumulated internal documents. Perhaps the most comprehensive guide to this material is the Editor's index. However, studying all that material takes a long time. For quicker guidance, see the links under WP:EIW#Dispute. --Teratornis (talk) 20:46, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict)Thanks for the advice. You'll see I did offer some form of mediation by a third party but another user User:Crispness kicked off an edit war while discussions were ongoing. I feel the debate has now passed the point of no return, given that two editors have now joined forces. I'll look at WP:30 for starters. CarterBar (talk) 20:49, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Just looked at WP:3O and I see it can't be used when more than two editors are involved. In the case of Radio 4 UK Theme there are three editors involved, including myself. Nevertheless, I would have thought that WP:3O would be a good way forward in this case. However, given that it can't be used, what is the best option to deal with the conflit concerning the article in question (current discussion is at User talk:Bardcom)? User:Bardcom has previously been subject to an RfC on an almost identical matter but it seemed to peter out. CarterBar (talk) 20:59, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry to keep pestering on this, but if an editor won't agree to mediation on content dispute (I'm waiting for a response at the moment) what would be the next step? Thanks. CarterBar (talk) 21:38, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Positioning and help with the Div and Span

I need help with my userpage I added a userbox directly to it I need help repositioning it go to my user page Melab-1 and edit if you know how I give you permission to fix it. Here is the problem I have going to show you one of the subsections:

Here is the subsection name
--------------------------------------------------------------

       +------------------------------------------------+
       |                                                |
       |                                                |
       |                                                |
       |                                                |
       |                                                |
       |                 Group of User Boxes            |
       |                                                |
       |                                                |
       |                                                |
       |                                                |
       |                                                |
       +------------------------------------------------+

+---------------+
|   User Box I  | Name of the next Subsection
|     Added     |---------------------------------------------
+---------------+

I want it to look like this:

Here is the subsection name
--------------------------------------------------------------

       +------------------------------------------------+
       |                                                |
       |                                                |
       |                                                |
       |                                                |
       |                                                |
       |                 Group of User Boxes            |
       |                                                |
       |                                                |
       |                                                |
       |                                                |
       |                                                |
       +--------------+---------------+-----------------+
                      |   User Box I  |
                      |     Added     |
                      +---------------+

Name of the next subsection
------------------------------------------------------------

And again you have my permission to fix it just ask me before you do it. Melab-1 (talk) 21:17, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Add it to the other userboxes you have at User:Melab-1/Userpage2 and change the align to center, should work — chan dler — 21:45, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know how to change the align to center. Melab-1 (talk) 22:00, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I made the requested changes as best I could. Is the new alignment what you wanted?--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:17, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Locking an article

How do I lock an article being vandalized? Heismanhoosier (talk) 22:43, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You can ask for page protection at Wikipedia:Requests for page protection. Note that it is unlikely that any page will be protected unless it is being heavily vandalized.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:55, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Could you give a link to the page which is being vandalized so we can check whether (semi)-protection is needed? Vivio Testarossa^{Talk Who} 00:44, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Photo captions

How do you put captions on photos which are not thumbnails? Mine just disappear.--seahamlass 23:08, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Like this [[Image:example.jpg|frame|caption text]]. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:27, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

WP:AIV report

Is it ok for a user to remove a report made by another user, that is not about the person who removed it? For example there [3] there is currently a report for an IP that hasn't edited in 2-3 days. So what I am asking is it ok to remove it? If so, should I leave a note on the person who made the report's talk page? Thanks, Vivio Testarossa^{Talk Who} 00:42, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

One can add various forms of {{AIV}} to the report, I'm pretty sure removing it is OK if you say why in the edit summary. Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) 00:49, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Some reporters may be annoyed if the report is not handled by an administrator, and if you apply for admin then some users may view it negatively when voting. I suggest you wait for an administrator to deal with it. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:03, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If the IP has not edited for 2 or 3 days, then it's fine to remove it. Make sure you explain why, carefully, in the edit summary. If a reporter does get annoyed, then don't cause a fuss, simply allow them to resubmit the report - the reviewing admin will remove it as "stale" if there's been no activity for 2-3 days anyway. Neıl 龱 13:06, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Foreign links

I am about to redirect Prima ballerina and Prima ballerina assoluta to Ballerina (after discussing it with their main editor), but what should I do with the French and Russian(?) links? Clarityfiend (talk) 01:56, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If you mean links in the French and Russian Wikipedia to the English Wikipedia then just ignore them. A bot or editor in that language will deal with them at some time and linking to a redirecting English page until then is OK. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:55, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

July 4

My Problem

Hey guys,

I'm trying to create an article on the up and coming band Plushgun and I ran into a problem when I used a link to Myspace blog in a reference for the band's first album. When I try to create the page I get a Spam filter notice due to the myspace link. Does anyone know a way around this? I have the rest of the article on my user page. Thanks and Happy 4th of July! Noneforall (talk) 05:22, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Myspace and pretty much the rest of Web 2.0 fails to meet WP:SOURCES criteria for a reliable source. Just browsing the web, I've come across at least one [other article], so it meets the #1 killer of band pages on Wikipedia, WP:BAND. Most of the other bands that want to cite Myspace as a reference don't. SDY (talk) 06:06, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Uhh.... that article's a press release, SDY, just for the record, so doesn't actually meet the guidelines. Tony Fox (arf!) 18:28, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The phrase "up and coming" might sound to some deletionists like a prediction of the future, which we don't do on Wikipedia. Since Plushgun already attracted a {{db-band}}, you might want to read WP:WWMPD for some advice on how to prepare for the worst. --Teratornis (talk) 04:24, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Photo captions again

Hi, I'm still having problems with pics/captions. I want to make a couple of pics smaller than "thumb", with a caption at the bottom, and placed to the right of the page. However, when I try this: Image:Echoprint.jpg|150px|The Echo press in the 1960s|right it makes the pic smaller, but removes the caption.

Also, does anyone know how to make this 20-mile (32.1 km) into a squared figure? When I put a 2 after the mile or km, it remains a large 2 rather than the sign for squared...

If anyone could help, I'd be over the moon! Thanks.--seahamlass 10:14, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

For the image, use the thumb parameter:

[[Image:Echoprint.jpg|thumb|150px|The Echo press in the 1960s]]

For the measurement, use the {{convert}} template:

{{convert|20|mi|km}}

20 miles (32 km)

You mention square, so if you mean to measure area:

{{convert|20|sqmi|km2}}

20 square miles (52 km²)

--—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 10:42, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Fantastic! They both work great. Many, many thanks.--seahamlass 10:50, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikipedia:Extended_image_syntax for a full explanation on the paramaters for images. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 18:02, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Japanese

how to write/read in japanese langauage? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.2.208.237 (talk) 10:16, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, I doubt anyone here at the helpdesk has the time or the skill to teach Japanese. Go to the library and take out a book on the subject, or get lessons from a tutor or Rosetta Stone. Xenon 54 12:45, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Are you referring to writing Japanese characters in the English Wikipedia and displaying them in your browser? PrimeHunter (talk) 12:50, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

User discussion page won't archive

Can someone take a look at my talk page and see if there's anything obviously wrong with the archiver settings? It doesn't seem to be working, again. Maury (talk) 11:39, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Can you explain your problem in more detail, please? –thedemonhog talk • edits 19:02, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You have a lot of unsigned posts. I think the bot goes by the dates in signatures. Without dated signatures it doesn't know when to archive. —teb728 t c 20:23, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, unsigned posts get ignored by the bot, so you'll have to manually archive those. — The Hand That Feeds You:^Bite 11:07, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Low importance articles

I just ran across this page and it is the first time I have seen something like this: [4]. All the pages are talk pages for articles that may or may not be "important", depending on subjective preference. (As a pretty strict inclusionist I am not one to talk!) So I am just curious...what is this about? Why is this a category? Thanks. Saudade7 11:54, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Many WikiProjects use assessment— see Wikipedia:Assessment. Clicking on the link at the top of that category takes you to Wikipedia:WikiProject Philosophy/Assessment, which explains the assessment system for both quality and importance. If you open one of those talk pages, you will see that the article is rated by use of the project banner template. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 12:05, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Articles in Category:Low-importance Philosophy articles and others in Category:Low-importance articles are part of an importance classification scheme. It can be used to select articles for smaller versions of Wikipedia in other media like CD, DVD, print. See Category:Articles by importance and Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team. Editors can choose which articles to work on based on their importance rating (and I guess readers can use it to choose what to read). The rating is not an "official" part of the Wikipedia encyclopedia which is why it's placed on the talk page. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:11, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks everyone. Saudade7 19:18, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Connection

How can I stop my internet connection from disconnecting itself? Last time, I had an IP that I used for nearly two months; now, my connection keeps disconnecting itself, changing my IP. How can I counter this? 124.181.227.96 (talk) 11:59, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Your IP address is determined by your Internet service provider. Some are static and some are dynamic. If you want your Wikipedia edits to be connected then the best way is to create an account. That hides your IP address and shows all your contributions in one place like Special:Contributions/PrimeHunter. See also Wikipedia:Why create an account? for other benefits. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:47, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Link to User page

How do I create a link which will link to the user's User page? --Redaktor (talk) 12:57, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Write [[User:Redaktor]] to make User:Redaktor, or [[User:Redaktor|Redaktor]] to make Redaktor without User: displayed in front. If you mean something else then please be specific. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:07, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(Edit conflict. Haha.) The above information is correct. However, if this is for signing purposes, just add the four tildes which form your signature (and by default, this will link to your userpage). --Sky Harbor ^(talk) 13:09, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Redaktor. You can see the name of any page on Wikipedia at the top of the page. For example, this one is Wikipedia:Help desk, which you would link to with: [[Wikipedia:Help desk]]. If I want to make a link to my image page, which is User:Neil/images, I would write [[User:Neil/images]]. You can either type the name, or go to the page, copy the name, and paste the name to where you want it and put wikilinks ([[ ]]) around it.

If you want the link to your own user page at the end of something you write on a talk page, ie your "signature", it's four tildes, which looks like this: ~~~~. Hope that helps! Neıl 龱 13:11, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, but none of these answers my questions. Let me be more explicit. I want to write some text/code so that whoever reads it will be able to link from it to their own User page. Something like [[User:{{USERPAGE}}]] (which does not work). Thanks! --Redaktor (talk) 13:50, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That would be Special:MyPage. — The Hand That Feeds You:^Bite 14:07, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Many thanks—that's what I wanted to know. --Redaktor (talk) 15:35, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Special templates

Where can I find a list of all of the special templates that don't have a template page, such as {{CURRENTMONTH}} and {{NUMBEROFARTICLES}}? I've been looking around and can't find any place where they are listed. --Arctic Gnome (talk • contribs) 15:05, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

They are not actually templates. See Help:Magic words. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:09, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Institute of Sport and Recreation Management

The organisation named above is not listed on wikipedia, it has been in existence since 1921, I would like to list it as an employee, how do I go about doing this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by ISRM (talk • contribs) 15:36, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Many things have existed a long time but do not meet wikipedia notability criteria for inclusion. Before creating an article about it, check you have sufficient sources, and that you can write it with neutral point of view. Also, look at guidelines on conflict of interest. -mattbuck (Talk) 15:50, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

And also take a look at WP:CORP and WP:SPAM. I would also strongly advise you to change your user name. If you create an article about the Institute using that name, it will be considered promotional and you will almost certainly be blocked. – ukexpat (talk) 21:36, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Forbidden

'What I'm going to do when I get the message below :

" Forbidden You don't have permission to access /coursewares/khoahoc/sinhhocdc_a1/phan1/ch4.htm on this server.

Apache/2.0.49 (Unix) PHP/4.3.9 Server at www.ctu.edu.vn Port 80]] "

Appreciated for yor feedback. email removed —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.95.9.170 (talk) 17:02, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I've removed your email address, as this page is often read by spammers. For your question, this is the help desk for Wikipedia. You'd be more likely to get an answer on our Computing reference desk. — The Hand That Feeds You:^Bite 17:34, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Computing reference desk. They specialize in answering computer questions and will try to answer any question in the universe except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link and ask away. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps.

Please do not include contact details in your questions. We are unable to provide answers by any off-wiki medium and this page is highly visible across the internet. The details have been removed, but if you wish for them to be permanently removed from the page history, email this address....... Dendodge .. Talk^Contribs 17:40, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That's what I said! ;) — The Hand That Feeds You:^Bite 18:02, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Definitely an echo in here...in here... – ukexpat (talk) 18:20, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Delete my account.

Please delete my account, or show me how to. Thanks, thebestkiano.

Due to the fact that Wikipedia content is licensed under the GFDL, all edits must be kept for attribution purposes, and so your account cannot be deleted. You do, however, have the right to vanish, which you can exercise by (1) requesting your user page (found at Special:Mypage) and/or user talk page (found at Special:Mytalk) be deleted, by adding the {{db-userreq}} template to them; (2) requesting to change your username to something that is unconnected with you (possibly a random collection of letters and numbers); (3) never logging in to your account again. If you do this, you are still free to register a new username if you wish to continue editing Wikipedia....... Dendodge .. Talk^Contribs 18:58, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

A question on sourcing

Hey, help desk. I'm a little confused on how to do this myself, as I've seen it done differently in different articles, and am not sure which method is the best.

So I'm working on this article — black cat bone — in my sandbox, and have found a bunch of books that I can use as reliable sources. A couple of these books are so informative that I'd like to use them as sources for several different statements. For example, when citing Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro with regards to two separate statements, I was thinking of using something like this:

Magical traditions involving black cat bones, specifically, have been found in German-Canadian practice as well as in hoodoo; these German-Canadian magic-makers were not previously in contact with hoodooists, suggesting a European origin to the charm.^[1]

... insert other information here, citing different sources, and most of it unrelated to the first sentence ...

On the Sea Islands, a slightly different method is used: the bone that doesn't reflect in the mirror is believed to be the the magical one.^[2]

^ Newbell Niles PH. D. Puckett (2003). Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro. Kessinger Publishing, LLC. ISBN 0766127788. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

^ Newbell Niles PH. D. Puckett (2003). Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro. Kessinger Publishing, LLC. ISBN 0766127788. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

Basically, what I'm doing here is citing one book for several different, unconnected statements. Repeating the exact same <ref> tag just looks and feels really silly, though, and I'm wondering if I should be more specific. Should I add the different page numbers? Even briefly write down the quote from which I derived the information? Or is the stuff in my <blockquote> (above) the right way to go about it?

I feel like this question is super-confusing in its wording, so if you don't know what I mean, ask ... I'm not terribly sure on my phrasing in this case, unfortunately. Help is appreciated. —Switchercat ^talk_cont 19:16, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Switchercat. Your question made perfect sense to me. What you can do for two identical references is give the reference a name and then refer to it later, like this:

Here's a statement<ref name=list>The big list of statements</ref>

And here's another one I got from the same place!<ref name=list/>

Which gives:

Here's a statement^[1]

And here's another one I got from the same place!^[1]

^ ^a ^b The big list of statements

Note that you need the / at the end of the second instance of the ref, otherwise it'll expect a closing ref tag. Hope that helps. Olaf Davis | Talk 21:37, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, or if you want to use page numbers you can create a manual reference list that just includes titles of books, then use the footnotes for page numbers, giving something like:

Facts one^[1], two^[2] and three^[3] are my favourite facts.

Notes

^ Davis, p. 12

^ Davis, p. 60

^ Marx, p. 9

References

Facts, by Olaf Davis, 2008

The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx, 1848

Good luck! Olaf Davis | Talk 21:49, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yes! Thank you, that's exactly what I needed to hear. Glad you could help! —Switchercat ^talk_cont 21:50, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Comment: Personally I find {{reflist}} with its column switches more flexible than <references />, but I guess it's matter of taste. – ukexpat (talk) 00:27, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Forward slash in article title

Hello. A week or so ago I created the article Real Fake Princess under that name, thinking that its actual name ,Real/Fake Princess, couldn't be used due to technical restrictions. Today I was visiting WP:NCTR, saw the wrongtitle template, and thought I could somehow make use of that in the article. Not being able to find any instructions, I created the page Real/Fake Princess as a redirect, thinking it would apply the wrongtitle template...or something. This clearly was not right b/c Real/Fake Princess seems to be working just fine as a redirect to Real Fake Princess. But WP:NCTR indicates the forward slash can cause problems, so, er, what should I do? --hamu♥hamu (TALK) 20:03, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Um, User:Dendodge took action on this article 30 minutes ago but my question here hasn't been answered. I'm asking not just to get it fixed but so I can learn. (Maybe user found it independently and not through here but I also received nothing on my talk page, etc.) --hamu♥hamu (TALK) 21:21, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, I don't mean to be a pest, but it's been a few hours now and I really don't want a nasty note from someone on my talk page or in an edit summary because I created a page with an non-allowed title. Can anyone maybe answer my question. (Sorry, I've just been jumped on way too often lately and am paranoid.) --hamu♥hamu (TALK) 01:36, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Changing the title of a page can be done by using the "move" tab at the top of the page. Moving automatically makes the old name into a redirect. More at Help:Move.

On the article namespace the slash does nothing. In other namespaces (Talk, Wikipedia, User, etc) it makes a subpage. {{wrongtitle}} is generally used where Wikipedia's software can't cope - for example using a pipe character or square brackets, which are used in the wikilinks. In those cases you'll be stopped by the software with an error message. Wikipedia has some guideline naming conventions which can be followed - basically don't use capital letters except for proper names. You can ignore these :) - changing the title is easy, so anything reasonable will do. --h2g2bob (talk) 02:29, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Oh okay, I was alarmed by the statement that a forward slash can create problems and was just sort of waiting to get yelled at, LOL. Seems someone came along and moved the article to the redirect I'd created; they probably wondered what the heck I was doing. :) Thanks for the info about what happens when you try to make a technically impossible article name -- I didn't know if anything would happen or not. --hamu♥hamu (TALK) 02:34, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

looking for a name

Hi, I would like to ask for a name that is used when some "non-free" stuff is in some image, but it is so small that it doesn't affect the overall copyright of the image... I think it is similar to "minimal copyright use" (soo minimal it does not matter, not even legally) or something like that... the problem is that some guy at commons wants to delete an image of Xubuntu just because it contains some tiny logos... and I think that some tiny logos fall under that policy, something I once saw it on commons or wikipedia, but that can't remember the name... SF007 (talk) 20:33, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds like you're talking about fair use. Hope that helps. Olaf Davis | Talk 21:30, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

No, no... I know "fair use" very well, and what I am talking about is very different... but thanks anyway. SF007 (talk) 21:54, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, Olaf Davis is right. What you are referring to is a subset of 'fair use' called 'incidental use' (legally 'de minimis'). Incidental use, such as what you describe here, is a form of fair use where a copyright work appears "incidentally" inside another work. One commonly cited example of this is a picture of Times Square, where it is nearly impossible to take a photo without a logo, billboard, or some other copyrighted work to appear in it. However, the copyrighted works are not the subject of such a photo (Times Square is) and they only appear are part of the background, so therefore the photo's use of the copyrighted work is considered fair. -- ShinmaWa^(talk) 00:50, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

yeah, I think it was something very similar to that, or even that... but I still can't find the page on commons saying an image that fitted that "description" could be used there... thanks... SF007 (talk) 01:10, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm. Sorry, I hadn't realised the fair use policy page didn't mention that specifically. Not sure where else to look... Olaf Davis | Talk 10:34, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Uploading Copyrighted Pictures With No Known Website Available

Hello. I have several Kingdom Hearts pictures that have taken me months to find and I wish to upload them onto Wikipedia so that others may be able to find them easier and use them. These are images that Tetsuya Nomura drew himself and it obviously states on the front that the picture is copyrighted to him as well as Square Enix. Again I would like to upload these images but I am afraid that they might break some law. I also do not have the links to any of the sites that I found them on, nor do I even remember the names of the sites. May I still upload these or not? If I can, how do I do that without a website link? 21:39, 4 July 2008 (UTC) Leggy

Images uploaded to Wikipedia must be either freely licensed/public domain (which those are not) or used under fair use. This is required for Wikipedia to comply with copyright law. For a valid fair use claim, you must state the source, so I don't think you could upload the images unless you can find the source. Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 02:39, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Editing a Featured Article

Is it ok to edit a featured article? I edited the Chess article, including adding in a fact request to something that I thought needed one. Another editor came along and reverted all of my edits (there were about 6 I think). I thought most of them were quite reasonable, but they were all blanked. --ZincBelief (talk) 21:52, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Editing the featured article is encouraged. Have you discussed the reasons for the reverts with the reverting editor? Corvus cornix_talk 21:58, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

No I haven't actually, but I left a small paragraph on the discussion page of the article. Maybe they will discuss it there. It's just that I would expect somebody to discuss why they reverted a change in the edit summary. If there are 6 changes I would expect them to leave a note on the talk page or something. Recently an admin twice reverted a change I made to a page, and then used a friend to revert a third and fourth time and issued me with a warning even though I had discussed it with them and explained all their reasons for reverting were obviously wrong. So I'm a bit paranoid now to be honest. Anyway this editor looks like he's nice--ZincBelief (talk) 22:06, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikipedia:BOLD, revert, discuss cycle. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 00:08, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Dispute Resolution

What is the next step in a Wikipedia dispute resolution process when you have reached a complete stalemate over content and have already sought a 3rd opinion, WP:MEDCAB, and request for comment? (This is asked in regards to Wikipedia:Mediation Cabal/Cases/2008-02-11 Parkour.) --S.dedalus (talk) 23:14, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Dispute resolution has details. I'd suggest formal mediation, then Arbitration, but that's for the parties to decide. x42bn6 Talk Mess 23:51, 4 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

July 5

Skip to the top/bottom

Resolved

– Done on Talk Page

I noticed that on the bottom and top of the help desk, there are links that bring you to the bottom and the top of the page. On the top, there is a "skip to the bottom" link and the bottom has "back to the top" link. Can someone do that to my talk page? I think it could be useful. Thanks, RyRy (talk) 00:32, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Done on your talk page :p Gary King (talk) 00:40, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. :D -- RyRy (talk) 00:49, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Help with Action Buttons

What I am looking for is a way to modify something (internally) by using a hyperlink, button, etc. (basically anything I can interact with by clicking, not editing) so I can change a graphic (or something that will indirectly cause a graphic to change). I would think that the most obvious solution is a variable (or a template acting as one), but I don't know how to write to one.

I call this an action button because a similar feature is implemented in Microsoft Office. Graham (talk, contrib) 05:45, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Do you mean on Wikipedia? or on Office. If Office:

This page is for questions about editing Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Reference desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps.. If Wikipedia: Check Help:Links StewieGriffin! • Talk Sign Listen 10:42, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If it has something to do with images: Check out Template:Click. StewieGriffin! • Talk Sign Listen 10:43, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

How to make page come up on google search

I have created a Wikipedia page for a writer. It still seems to be in stub form even though it has external links. But I don't know how create the external links sub section, so at the moment the links do not correspond to anything. They are in number form - 1,2, 3,4 on the page. The page also does not come up on a google search. Is this because it needs developing? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Feedmeorstarveme (talk • contribs) 11:59, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

p.s The page in question is for the playwright Jason Charles —Preceding unsigned comment added by Feedmeorstarveme (talk • contribs) 12:02, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I added {{reflist}} so the references now show. Google will catch up fairly soon, so don't worry about it. You need to worry about expand ding the article per WP:BLP. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 13:00, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. I'm not sure if it worked as it is still in exactly the same state as before. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Feedmeorstarveme (talk • contribs) 13:13, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Signature

I usually see people signing other people's comments on Talk Pages. Can only Admins do this? If not, how do you do it? --71.225.85.57 (talk) 13:33, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

No, anybody can do this. Please read this section of this essay to learn how to do this. Lra drama 13:47, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Speedy Deletion Tags

Are there any templates that you can post on pages that have a 'Speedy Deletion' tag that say you agree with deleting the page? --71.225.85.57 (talk) 14:20, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

[1] Newbell Niles PH. D. Puckett (2003). Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro. Kessinger Publishing, LLC. ISBN 0766127788. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

[2] Newbell Niles PH. D. Puckett (2003). Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro. Kessinger Publishing, LLC. ISBN 0766127788. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

[list-3] The big list of statements

[4] Davis, p. 12

[5] Davis, p. 60

[6] Marx, p. 9

[1]

[2]

[1]

[1]

[2]

[3]

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